We’ve had a spate of enquiries this month about dealing with an employee who keeps taking time off to look after their child. Short term, no notice absenteeism is a really difficult issue for employers to cope with. It affects planned work, it affects other team members and it can affect customers. It can be very frustrating especially if it happens a lot. It’s important to remember that your employee has a contract of employment with you. That contract of employment will usually say how many hours a week that they are contracted to attend work. There’s an obligation on both sides here. You as the employer need to provide the hours of paid work that you’ve contracted with your employee. Your employee needs to attend work for the hours that they’ve signed to do, unless they’ve agreed to take annual leave or in some other way agreed to a change. An employee who frequently fails to be available to carry out their contracted hours can be accused of “frustrating” the contract of employment. Frustration of contract can lead employers to a decision to terminate the employment relationship. This kind of decision needs care. The law Parental Leave Parental leave can be used […]
